For the 70th anniversary of the official beginning of the Korean War, Liberation School interviewed the People’s Democracy Party, a revolutionary workers’ party in South Korea, to get their perspective on the war and the prospects for peace. The voices of the South Korean left are excluded from mainstream and even many progressive media outlets, and it’s crucial that the U.S. peace movement hear first-hand the ideas and activities of organizers on the Korean peninsula.
The PDP was formed in November 2016, although its founders were active in previous political parties and struggles. They are fighting for national independence, which they view as a prerequisite for building a people’s democratic regime and achieving reunification. Their program calls for a “re-appropriation welfare policy,” which is distinct from a “taxation welfare policy” pushed by social democrats. They are organizing to re-appropriate “the corrupted property of forces against people,” including the Chaebols (large family-controlled capitalist enterprises), foreign capital, and all foreign military basis. They would use this wealth to “resolve the issue of unemployment and precarious workers, realize in practice the policy of free and common education, medical service, and inhabitation, and write off debts for farmers and families.” The “PDP has presented the strict and scientific program for resolving the problems in Corea as specifying the withdrawal of all foreign military personnel and for federated reunification.”
Read the full article: https://liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/
